‘The climate made me do it!’ Anti-coal protesters are poised to try out the ‘necessity defense’
Protesters 'blocked the delivery of 40,000 tons of Appalachian mountaintop coal to New England. They’ll argue that it’s really climate change and the government’s ineffective policies that should be on trial.'
'Then they’ll ask the jury to find them not guilty by reason of “necessity.” - 'their illegal interference with a coal delivery was justified in light of the greater danger of catastrophic climate change.'
'This trial will mark a pioneering invocation of the necessity defense, the longstanding legal doctrine that it is acceptable to commit a crime if you are preventing a greater harm.'
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/08/16/the-climate-made/SyBQ7d95ZG0QoiJBHI17KK/story.html
